By Crystal Luong
News Assistant
Movie fans are a click away from free entertainment with the Student Government Association’s new movie channel on TV-6.
Ten new films per month run on a daily schedule for on-campus viewing. Movies generally play once at 2 p.m. and later at 9 p.m. The movie channel shares TV-6 with Waves Radio, and broadcasts movies based on the availability of time slots.
At the beginning of this semester, SGA film chair Sophie Soong and President Ben Elliott cooperated with administration to start the movie channel. They worked primarily through Tabatha Jones, associate dean of Student Affairs for Student Activities and Leadership Development.
Soong cited picking the initial movie titles as one of the main obstacles they faced in proposing the idea.
SGA uses an online rating system that provides up-to-date content information about new and old movie releases, and the site also evaluates them on a scale of 1 to 10 in three areas: violence and gore, sex and nudity, and profanity, Jones said.
“We wanted to show movies with good content and to make sure that they were tasteful because this is an extension of what Pepperdine stands for,” Soong said.
After Soong and Elliott selected titles over Winter Break, the list was brought before the Ocean’s 37 activity board for additional ideas.
“I figured they’d all be safe or clean movies,” said Cara Lynn, sophomore political science major, regarding her expectations of the movie selections.
Movies playing in February include “Shrek,” “Remember the Titans,” “Grease,” “The Goonies,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “A Beautiful Mind” and Legally Blonde.” In acknowledgement of Black History Month, R-rated movies, “Glory” and “A Time to Kill,” are also on the play list.
According to Soong, the February schedule is the result of a compromise with the administration to ease the faculty and their families into the idea of the movie channel. Movies rated PG-13 and R have been programmed for the 9 p.m. time slot to target older audiences.
“In the process of selecting movies, we thought of movies that students would like — some thrillers, some action, some comedy and some oldies. We also thought of the ones we grew up with,” Soong said.
March’s programming schedule will tentatively follow themes of Women’s Appreciation Month, and April will feature graduation-themed titles.
Funding for the movie channel will come from the SGA special project funds budget and possibly out of the film chair budget, Elliott said. The 10 movies cost $1,000 per month for licensing fees from Residential Life Cinemas.
In comparison, movies shown in Elkins Auditorium every other Thursday cost about $600 each. Elkins films used to be shown weekly, but now play every other week in order to balance the film budget.
The movie channel is not a new idea to Pepperdine. A similar movie station existed on campus a few years ago, but according to Elliott, the program failed due to technology problems.
In the future, Soong hopes the channel will expand to show more movies in more time slots. However, expanding beyond campus is not possible due to extreme licensing fees.
“The feedback I received (from faculty and administration) has been positive and supportive of the concept,” Jones said.
Student feedback has also been positive.
“It’s nice to have the movies on. There are some good movie choices. (My roommate and I) have 70-75 DVDs between us and it’s like an addition to our collection,” freshman Marc Baucum said.
Adam Ebert, a senior psychology and French major, agreed.
“I think it’s a pretty cool idea,” he said. “Me and my suitemates go rent movies often, so I’m excited about the movie channel.”
February 20, 2003